Press Reviews: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NYC [6/7/77]- The cheers and fireworks were deafening as Led Zeppelin's sold-out six-concert engagement got off to an explosive start here. Newer "heavy metal" rock bands have been racking up impressive attendances and grosses in recent years, but few in operation today can match the crowd impact of these nine-year veterans of the large scale concert tour. Zeppelin's main strength is still the skill of its individual musicians, notably lead guitarist and mentor Jimmy Page. His versatility was demonstrated by facile fingerpicking on the twelve-stringed electric for "The Song Remains The Same," as well as tasteful acoustic backing of Robert Plant's lead vocal on "Going To California," part of an acoustical set that included the very unusual "Battle of Evermore" from the band's [fourth] album.

John Paul Jones is a jack of all trades, playing a solid, reserved bass in addition to various keyboards, strings and bass pedals. His feature of the evening was the dreamy "No Quarter," for which he played synthesized piano in the midst of the effective dry-ice fog.

The concert's major energy contributor was drummer John Bonham, who specialized in imaginative embellishment and occasional telepathic explosions of rhythmic chaos with Page.

Special lighting effects included a pyramid of green lasers surrounding 'a solitary Page, and directed spots which gave Plant the look of a blue elf with flaming I golden hair at the outset of the three-hour set's close, "Stairway To Heaven." The show was not without its weak points, however. The sound was completely unbalanced for the first twenty minutes, creating a very disturbing distortion at high volume. Once the mix was clear, there were additional slow spots, especially lengthy, self-indulgent solos by Page and Bonham.

The group sometimes seemed to be going through its paces rather than giving itself to the audience. Led Zeppelin is bent on becoming one of the world's longest-lived rock groups. However, they conspicuously avoided older material, in even leaving out the classic "Dazed And Confused." Sticking to the current albums will keep Zeppelin fresh with the younger crowd, even at the risk of losing the "grandparents," as Plant humorously referred to us. [by p. dumauro, 6/77]

-------------------------------------------

Press Review: Some rock bands have fans, others have admirers and still others have followers. But Led Zeppelin is the last great rock band who’s minions can be considered true believers.

Believing in Led Zeppelin makes its audience a unified community, which is rare in rock these days. The decline of rock as a social phenomenon and its development as big business has made the likelihoodof such sentiment obsolete. Led Zeppelin is the only exception. The nearly 20,000 believers who filled Madison Square Garden light night (June 7th) for the first of six sold-out shows were part of rock’s largest fraternity. A passion for Led Zeppelin is enough to establish communications, if not necessarily friendship, among a large segment of today’s teenagers.

The audience displayed restraint that bordered on saintliness during the one-hour delay before the concert started. No announcement or explanation was offered. But a substantial number of people did show stupidity bordering on sadism in greeting the band with an assault of fireworks that made the Garden seem like Da Nang, The explosions faded after a few songs when singer Robert Plant exerted his moral authority by requesting that those offenders “cool the firecrackers – no more of those exploding things.”

After that, most of the explosions were from the stage, where Led Zeppelin proved that it was worthy of the adoration bestowed upon it. The 8-year old band virtually invented what has become known as heavy-metal rock, an English combination of blues structures and ear-splitting volume. But the band has grown with the times. Rather than relying on its earlier style of rock-to-break-your-kneecaps-with once represented by songs like Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin performed a nearly three-hour set notable for its variety, sophistication and depth.

Each member of this quartet added something special to the band’s sound. Singer Robert Plant, a tall, muscular, golden-haired man whose unbutton shirt proudly revealed the best developed pectoral muscles in rock, sand with his usually effective rasp. He maintained pitch and melody well and exuded by a gregariousness and intensity. Lead guitarist Jimmy Page is one of rock’s legends. His playing was busy, wiry, sometimes scattershot. On In My Time of Dying, he continually shifted the emphasis of the dynamics until he built to an attention-riveting, machine gun-like finish.

No Quarter was the vehicle for versatile John Paul Jones. On that tune, he performed on keyboards, alternating between spacey abstraction and kinetic surges of energy. His performance blended the styles of Keith Jarrett, Huey Smith, Beethoven, and B. Bumble and the Stingers. Drummer John Bonham, meanwhile, played with deceptive subtlety. His cannonball approach made use of empty space on In My Time of Dying, that propelled the other musicians without overpowering them.

So while many in the audience enjoyed the show simply because being there conferred status on the high school ladder, Zeppelin pleased its older fans by playing with both complexity and poignance. (D. Marsh, Newsday- June 1977)

Press Reviews: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NYC [6/7/77]- The cheers and fireworks were deafening as Led Zeppelin's sold-out six-concert engagement got off to an explosive start here. Newer "heavy metal" rock bands have been racking up impressive attendances and grosses in recent years, but few in operation today can match the crowd impact of these nine-year veterans of the large scale concert tour. Zeppelin's main strength is still the skill of its individual musicians, notably lead guitarist and mentor Jimmy Page. His versatility was demonstrated by facile fingerpicking on the twelve-stringed electric for "The Song Remains The Same," as well as tasteful acoustic backing of Robert Plant's lead vocal on "Going To California," part of an acoustical set that included the very unusual "Battle of Evermore" from the band's [fourth] album.

John Paul Jones is a jack of all trades, playing a solid, reserved bass in addition to various keyboards, strings and bass pedals. His feature of the evening was the dreamy "No Quarter," for which he played synthesized piano in the midst of the effective dry-ice fog.

The concert's major energy contributor was drummer John Bonham, who specialized in imaginative embellishment and occasional telepathic explosions of rhythmic chaos with Page.

Special lighting effects included a pyramid of green lasers surrounding 'a solitary Page, and directed spots which gave Plant the look of a blue elf with flaming I golden hair at the outset of the three-hour set's close, "Stairway To Heaven." The show was not without its weak points, however. The sound was completely unbalanced for the first twenty minutes, creating a very disturbing distortion at high volume. Once the mix was clear, there were additional slow spots, especially lengthy, self-indulgent solos by Page and Bonham.

The group sometimes seemed to be going through its paces rather than giving itself to the audience. Led Zeppelin is bent on becoming one of the world's longest-lived rock groups. However, they conspicuously avoided older material, in even leaving out the classic "Dazed And Confused." Sticking to the current albums will keep Zeppelin fresh with the younger crowd, even at the risk of losing the "grandparents," as Plant humorously referred to us. [by p. dumauro, 6/77]

-------------------------------------------

Press Review: Some rock bands have fans, others have admirers and still others have followers. But Led Zeppelin is the last great rock band who’s minions can be considered true believers.

Believing in Led Zeppelin makes its audience a unified community, which is rare in rock these days. The decline of rock as a social phenomenon and its development as big business has made the likelihoodof such sentiment obsolete. Led Zeppelin is the only exception. The nearly 20,000 believers who filled Madison Square Garden light night (June 7th) for the first of six sold-out shows were part of rock’s largest fraternity. A passion for Led Zeppelin is enough to establish communications, if not necessarily friendship, among a large segment of today’s teenagers.

The audience displayed restraint that bordered on saintliness during the one-hour delay before the concert started. No announcement or explanation was offered. But a substantial number of people did show stupidity bordering on sadism in greeting the band with an assault of fireworks that made the Garden seem like Da Nang, The explosions faded after a few songs when singer Robert Plant exerted his moral authority by requesting that those offenders “cool the firecrackers – no more of those exploding things.”

After that, most of the explosions were from the stage, where Led Zeppelin proved that it was worthy of the adoration bestowed upon it. The 8-year old band virtually invented what has become known as heavy-metal rock, an English combination of blues structures and ear-splitting volume. But the band has grown with the times. Rather than relying on its earlier style of rock-to-break-your-kneecaps-with once represented by songs like Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin performed a nearly three-hour set notable for its variety, sophistication and depth.

Each member of this quartet added something special to the band’s sound. Singer Robert Plant, a tall, muscular, golden-haired man whose unbutton shirt proudly revealed the best developed pectoral muscles in rock, sand with his usually effective rasp. He maintained pitch and melody well and exuded by a gregariousness and intensity. Lead guitarist Jimmy Page is one of rock’s legends. His playing was busy, wiry, sometimes scattershot. On In My Time of Dying, he continually shifted the emphasis of the dynamics until he built to an attention-riveting, machine gun-like finish.

No Quarter was the vehicle for versatile John Paul Jones. On that tune, he performed on keyboards, alternating between spacey abstraction and kinetic surges of energy. His performance blended the styles of Keith Jarrett, Huey Smith, Beethoven, and B. Bumble and the Stingers. Drummer John Bonham, meanwhile, played with deceptive subtlety. His cannonball approach made use of empty space on In My Time of Dying, that propelled the other musicians without overpowering them.

So while many in the audience enjoyed the show simply because being there conferred status on the high school ladder, Zeppelin pleased its older fans by playing with both complexity and poignance. (D. Marsh, Newsday- June 1977)

Comments

Awesome! First night at MSG. Being a guitar player in 8th grade and a huge Zep fan, I knew I couldn't miss this show. It was my first concert and no other band has lived up to it since.
Thanks for all the great memories!

Memorable concert! Buddy sold me tickets he couldn't go because had summer school. To this day he still talks about regrets/envy. 2nd Promenade Sec 332 Row M Seat 8 (girlfriend 7 or 10). Left side of stage - Jimmies side!

Still got some photos somewhere - can't believe you could bring in cameras back then. "Security" nothing like it is today.

Only "clear" memories are of Moby Dick, Kashmir and what's called "Jimmy Page Solo". Wasn't it Dazed and Confused"?

I was first exposed to Led Zeppelin through my older brother, Greg. He had the albums and the stereo and after a day at high school, years 1975-79, I usually would come home put on Black Dog, Bring in on Home, You Shook Me, (you get the picture), and blast out the the music on his Kenwood stereo and JBL speakers; that is until my parents came home and yelled at me to turn off "that noise". No other band had the energy, interesting lyrics, diversity of sounds, musicianship or guitar virtuosity then Led Zeppelin.

When my brother won the lottery for 6 tickets for the 6/7/77 show I was estatic. That is until he told me I wasn't going because he was going to scalp 2 of the tickets because the demand was going to be high and he would make a killing. I was extremely pissed off and told him in no uncertain terms that he was no longer my brother if he didn't let me go. Finally 2 seconds before he and his friends got into my fathers blue dodge fury station wagon did he say that if I wanted to go I better get my ass downstairs. I literally jumped in the air, pumped my fists screaming, YES, I realized I was going to experience something incredible. It also happened to be my first concert and first time in NYC without the family.

I just turned 16 and my brother and his friends were 18. They were experienced at partying and I was just being exposed to it. By the time we got into Manhattan I was in a fog and didn't even know where the car was parked. It was a fairly humid day and sun was sinking on the west side of Manhattan.

The six of us got seperated in front of the Garden, me and Chris Farrelly, went up to the green seats, Greg and 3 of his friends went to the yellow seats at the side of the stage. I think he traded his tickets with some drunken, wasted fool, who didn't know that the yellow seats were two sections closer to the stage than the green seats.

Waiting for the show to start was quite the adventure. The smell of pot permeated the garden and there was a gray haze throughout the building. It was also unbelievably hot. Wearing dungarees and a concert tee shirt over a another shirt I thought I was going to die. Everyone was smoking and drinking. We had our own stash of liquor in a suede leather pouch. Seeing one guy with an knife that looked to be 8 inches long as he cut a rope to hang a banner made me a little uneasy.

The crowd went ballistic when the stage lights went on and Jimmy Page started the Song Remains the Same. Unbelievable!. No introduction, just run on stage and play. The concert started out with fast cranking songs and settled into a mellow mood with No Quarter. The tempo picked up again with Kashmir. Page's solo with Achilles Last Stand was incredible and for added affect a green laser created a pyramid around him.

When Plant was singing Stairway to Heaven there was an expectation that he would repeat the line he used in the Concert Film: The Song Remains the Same, when he said "Does anyone remember laughter?", after the words, "and the forests will echo with laughter". Instead he said "Does anyone remember forests?"

The concert ended with Whole Lotta Love and afterwards the crowd again went ballastic for 20 minutes waiting for an encore. They came out with Rock and Roll. You knew the concert was over and there was not going to be another encore when the garden lights came on. No matter how long the lighters glowed, they weren't coming back. No one wanted it to end.

Me and Chris Farrelly wondered around the city for 2 hours looking for the street level garage where we parked. We had no clue where it was. We found out later it was at 29th and 9th Ave. Somehow we made our way up to the Port Authority, borrowed some money and made a phone call home. I woke up my father who drove down from Rockland County and picked us up as we were standing next to some hookers and pimps near the Port Authroity entrance.

What an adventure!.

Still have the ticket stub and now turning on my 14 year old son to Led Zeppelin!

This was my very first "real" rock n roll concert. I was 14 and a few days before the event, my friend asked if I wanted to go, he had an extra ticket.

I remember the one hour delay and then the lights went out and we waited what seemed forever for them to start.

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I even remember exactly where I sat and can find that seat today (2008). I also remember asking my friends afterwards if all concerts were like that? They laughed and said....no......nothing compares to Led Zeppelin in concert and years later I fully understood where they were coming from.

This concert is the reason why I became a guitar player and played professionally for many years while pursuing my daytime career.

It changed my life and the very next day, I begged my dad to buy me as many Led Zeppelin albums as he would allow. We also went to Sam Ash in the city and I traded my acoustic guitar in for a Gibson L6 copy and started to learn how to play rock n roll.

I didn't want a job when I got older. I wanted to be a rock star........I wanted to be like Jimmy Page.

I have to say it was probably one of the absolute best, if not THE best concert I ever went to in my life (and I have gone to 100's over the years).

Thank You Led Zeppelin......you provided me a life changing experience that I will never ever forget.

I was there opening night nine rows back in orchestra. Their music sounded exactly the way it was on the album. At the time I was 16 and my older brother had tickets for all six nights. I was in my glory.

i was at this show on 6/7/77 i was 16 and on a first date with a really hot girl, we got to our nosebleed seats and i told her lets sneak down to better seats, she looked at me and said no way, i looked at her and said SEE YA!!! I snuck all the way down right in front of the stage by jimmy! it was phenomenal, a religious experience! it definitely changed my life! that girl never talked to me again, there have been many girls since that night and many concerts, but only one LED ZEPPELIN!!!!

This is the first of a six-night stand in New York and a really good show at that. In My Time Of Dying was dedicated to the British Queen. "Tonight is the beginning of the celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, and that's heavy thing for us, so we'll do this one for Liz!" said Plant to the noisy audience. Kashmir is a little sloppy but the whole show is really powerful and Jimmy is on fire in Achilles Last Stand. The drumming is very sloppy in Stairway To Heaven and everyone chases each other through Rock And Roll, which makes for a very bizarre arrangement.

Was at this 6/7/77 show as my 1st and Best show ever. I can still remember all the M80's going off and thinking the show might not happen. Was there with 3 friends in the Blue nose-bleed section and before the show we saw so many people jumping down in one corner to the next lower section (green I think), it looked like a waterfall of people. Well we weren't stupid, we did the same. Ended up in the red section sitting on the floor in front of some cool people that let us stay there. Great memories of a great show! They were without a doubt the best!

I remember this one like it was yesterday! My brother was a huge Zeppelin fan and hadn't missed any of their area appearances since 1970...Never forget the NY Daily News clip mentioning the MSG run in 1977..."Wham Bam,Led Zep's back in town!"...Anyway,no tickets! Went to Garden early in afternoon and scored 2 section 314 seats right next to stage.Band came out an hour late,crowd bordered on dangerous crazy! Too many M80's and firecrackers to mention...FINALLY after 9PM Zep hits the stage...Have to be unbiased here.Although it was great to see them,sound in cavernous Garden was just wall of noise.SOOO loud,SOOO Distorted.Page sloppy like a bar band guitarist playing his first gig.uggghhhhh...What happened to this great player? Sad thing is this run was one of the better ones of the 1977 tour..(see Tempe and Seattle for proof)....Fast forward 33 years to 2010....A soundboard finally surfaced of this show.Now I remember why I thought their playing was lousy...I was right.

THIS WAS MY 1ST LED ZEPPELIN CONCERT! I HAVE THE TICKET STUB FRAMED,AS WELL AS THE JUNE 13TH TICKET STUB. MORE PEOPLE AROUND THE GARDEN THIS NIGHT THAN IVE EVER SEEN BEFORE! AND SINCE! I LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY MY WHOLE LIFE. THIS WAS THE LAST US TOUR,UNFORTUNATLY. THEY WILL ALWAYS BE THE GREATEST FOR MANY REASONS.

I was there on 2 of those nights in june and i was a truly an extraordinary experience that i will never forget. i remember scalping tickets for about $30.00 for 10 rows back of stage. and sneaking in all the booze and pot that you wanted too.The cops never bother you about it. Thanks for making me relive that night.

yes indeed!!! i was at that show too, i snuck down from nosebleed seats to right in front of the stage, i was 16 and it was the best summer of my life! i got to see floyd and yes too,weren't we lucky to be around back then? kids today have no clue how great it was back in the 70s!!!

I was 13 years old. I was suppossed to be punished (not allowed to go to the show but my parents never took the ticket away). So I didnt came home from school that day (in the Bronx) and instead, jumped on the 6 and headed straight for MSG to see, what was then, only my second concert (Bad Company was the first).

Ive seen hundreds of shows since Zeppelin in June of 77. While many were amazing, none compared to that night. It was absolutely fucking incredible. We had 18th row orchestra seats through a friend of my Dad's who worked at MSG at the time. I can even still remember my ears ringing the whole next day which was great because my Dad was PISSED I didnt come home until 1am and went to the show without permission. But it was well worth it!

That concert is one of the best and most vivid memories of my entire life! I lament the fact I only got to see Zep once. Had I known what the future held, I would have found some way see all six NYC shows!

yes....i wore it to all the Plant, Page and Plant/Page shows i attended (about two dozen)...if fact right around 1998 or so, when Page/Plant were touring for Walking Into Clarksdale, 104.3FM was doing a big thing outside Meadowlands Arena and i saw Carol Miller...i walked up to her and said, "hey Carol- do you remember this?" and showed her my pin...she was floored and she made sure to mention it the next day on the air...the guy from the station was a bit of a wise ass and said "Tony (my name) you must be a hoarder"..I replied, "no- just a huge Zeppelin fan!!"....also have the ticket stub from the show, 6/7/77 above me in a frame- 10th row center!!!

I HAVE MINE! AS WELL AS MY TICKET STUBS FROM JUNE7 N 13(FRAMED)THAT FIRST NIGHT WAS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE 5TH NIGHT(JUNE 13) THEY PLAYED HEARTBREAKER!!!!!! REARE ON THAT TOUR! JIMMY KNEW I WAS THERE(LOL)

I was a 17-year-old visiting New York from WInnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The six nights of shows were sold out, but I bravely hung out outside MSG (by myself) and was amazed to see scalpers openly selling tickets in front of the arena, right in front of the cops on horseback. I bought one (can't remember how much I paid, but I would have paid practically anything). Not knowing the place, I was just hoping I wasn't getting ripped off. Turns out I was on the first promendade, section 128, row F, seat 5. Incredible seat!

The show was super loud, but amazing. Highlight for me was Kashmir, and Page playing guitar with a violin bow inside a laser pyramid-thingy. Funny story, the guy next to me was so wasted that he passed out before the show started and slept through the whole 3 hours!

Yes saw the show,row13 dead center,saw Lisa Robinson in the first row,after the opening number,ZEP walked off the stage so the roadies could sweep the stage ( thats how much crap the fans were throwing) you name it ,& it was their. Some ugly chick was brought up on stage as a prank by Richard Cole during the opening moments of stairway.this distracted jimmy and it showed during the solo otherwise one of the best shows of the entire tour. Cleveland & L.A were phenomenol as well. Others were clinkers

Madison Square Garden - June 7, 1977. It was the first concert of my life and the best concert of my life. Phenominal ... I can still see it and hear it in my mind ... most of my friends had tickets for the concert at the Spectrum and that concert was cancelled. I am VERY thankful to have had that experience. A concert of legends ... there never has been or ever will be ANYONE who can come close to the talant of that band. Their music lives on in my heart for always!!!!!!!!!

Submit your personal review of a particular show you attended, updates, corrections, etc., which will be considered for addition to the official online archive.

You may also contact the webmaster at: webmaster@ledzeppelin.com

[{"parent":{"title":"Get on the list!","body":" Get exclusive\u00a0official\u00a0Led Zeppelin news and announcements. ","field_newsletter_id":"9697319","field_label_list_id":"5720","field_display_rates":"0","field_preview_mode":"false","field_lbox_height":"","field_lbox_width":"","field_toaster_timeout":"60000","field_toaster_position":"From Top","field_turnkey_height":"1000","field_mailing_list_params_toast":"&autoreply=no","field_mailing_list_params_se":"&autoreply=no"}}]

By submitting my information above, I acknowledge that I have reviewed and agreed to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and I agree to receive updates and marketing messages from time to time from Led Zeppelin and their record label.

By submitting my information above, I acknowledge that I have reviewed and agreed to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and I agree to receive updates and marketing messages from time to time from Led Zeppelin and their record label.